St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-07-28
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent.

WASHINGTON, ID. c. May 10th, 1887.
The country youth or maiden who
reads of the happy lot of the Govern,
1nent clerk here, with his salary Of FROM
$1,000 to $500 per year, with his abun-
dant leisure, and with the great advan-
tages, social, literary, and spectacular
which life at the Capital affords, is
filled with longing. II the country
may even be filled with envy. The
eucllantment which distance lends to
alleged happy lots is often provocative
OF envy Perhaps the only happy lot is
which daisies cluster, but in which
there is enchantment only for those who
have seen iridescent bubbles of life
burst at the touch including even the
this is disgression from the strait and
narrow path of Washington cores
pondent.
Your correspondent wishes to ex-
plain that he was not discharged, he re-
signed into the business of journalism,
and look back on my experience as
Government clerk without envy or
longing. But to the average ex-clerk
the retrospect is much less enviable
now, than it was then in 1878. Perhaps
the greatest i'll and terror of youth is
the school examination. Oh . dost thou
remember? Think of a life OF pro-
tracted school examinations Such
is to be the future life of the Govern
ment clerk! He may no longer drive
his pen in peace, or furtively read his
newspaper. President Cleveland has
decreed that he shall stand an examina-
ton for promotion, whether he wants
promotion or not, and that If he fails to
reach an average of - per cent, lie must
step down and out. Saints, sinners and
the Beecher family but this is hard on |
the gilded and kalsomiHed youth and !
maiden whom Grant, Hayes, Garfield, |
Arthur, Blaine, Malone, Conkling and |
all those illustrious spoilers pensioned |
upon the Treasury in the riotous days
of reconstruction and carpet bags
The very idea of competitive exam
ination is quite paralizing, for they
know little spelling, and less arithmetic.
Geography, mahogany, physics and hys-
terics are all the same to them There
has been an increased demand for
school books in Washington during the
past week, and the Capital of the Unit
ed States is likely to be the paradise of
pedagogues. Already they have adyer-
tised to prepare applicants for civil ser
vice examination. But the fact remains
that an education cannot be improysed,
and the middle aged Republican clerks |
who have impaired their minds as we'll {
as their hearts in straining to keep alive !
the memories and the policy Of the war,
have no vitality left for the study of t
text books. !,
The past week added another to the :
many pageants which Washington has i
witnessed. The statue of Garfield was
with much parade and oratory
Ex-Speaker kiefer made prolix and !
5urgid address. The President had a u
Iard role to enact as representative of t
he nation in accepting the monument, '
which he did in little speech which !
vas not very bad, considering the t
necessary embarrassment which a well
informed honest man must feel when
allied upon to speak well of small .
a narrow partisan, and i
President who was the weak puppet of +
Blaine. Is the President well inform Il
d y? Has he forgotten the part that !,
fairfield took in defrauding the country I,
t it's chosen president in 1892 Has he
orgotten that it was this same man q
Tho from the stump told Republican, ~ !,
udiences, in an era of peace, twenty a.
ears after the war, to look along the
arrels Of their rifles and vote as they
hote Say nothing but good of the
cad? Classic bosh! Then erect sta
les in honor of Nero and Judas Isca- 4
OF, for they too are dead. am sick n
these everlasting statues to spurious Ia
Mushroom fame. Tilden, whom Gar et
cid defrauded Of the Presidency, and %
lns made his own election possible, x
IN afford to wait hundred years for d
IS statue, but when it is built, no one hi
oking even at Washington's monu- :,
ent should be able to say excelsior. f.
Great captains with their guns and drums ~
Disturb our Judgment for the hour; q
But at last silence. comes: =
These all are gone, and, standing like a tower
our children shall behold his fame
of